Chapitre 89: Thorn red paper
Going back at her dorm in the palace, Lisa bombarded her with questions--- if there was any good sale in the market, or if there's any upcoming special event in the capital. Lisa kept on asking questions because she was interested in taking a leave tomorrow.
"Is it worth it to spend my last leave credit for this month tomorrow?" Lisa's brows knitted, pondering as if it was the greatest problem in the world. If you're an ordinary palace attendant, maybe it was, but these were not the problems Maya had been pondering on at the moment.
It was unusual to receive a response the next day, and more unusual to receive a response on the same day.
Maya was startled to see a thorn piece of paper on her bed, she grabbed it so fast her roommate might be suspicious about it. Thankfully, Lisa did not notice it.
Maya went straight to the bathroom and unfolded the small piece of paper. 'Bring her' scribbled in Brian's handwriting.
To call it a response was an understatement, it was an order after all, and Maya knew exactly what was needed to be done.
It had to be tonight.
Maya washed her face roughly and went out as if nothing happened.
"For one thing, if you're going tomorrow, please buy me a beer or two." Maya slapped her freshly cleansed face and jumped on her bed.
"Okay but let me sleep on it." Lisa nodded. "Not the buying you a beer part," she said quickly. "the if-I'm-taking-a-leave-tomorrow."
Maya sighted, she really wanted that beer so badly now, she would gulp it in one sitting.
"Light's off?" Lisa stood up and walked towards the switch.
"Yes, yes." The light was off just as Maya responded.
"Good night." Lisa yawed loudly.
"Good night." There was no sleeping for Maya tonight.
Red means to abandon everything. Red means to go back immediately to the base. Red means to escape--- if it was simply a blank piece of red paper.
But the command that was burning at her back pocket means to escape with her--- with the princess.
Elion's mission was not abandoned, it was only rushed.
Maya decided to make a plan by herself, there was really no time for her to ask Elion for ideas.
They would be needing a rope, duct tape, a piece of wood or something--- what else are the necessary items if you're going to kidnap someone? Maybe the princess' bedsheet would be enough to wrap her around with it.
Hopefully the princess is sleeping as a baby, and if they're lucky she would not even notice that she's out of the kingdom once she's awake.
These are actually the least of their problems, how will they even be able to walk around the capital with a mummy wrapped in a blanked in Elion's shoulder? OR on how will they have a clearance exiting the Kingdom's gate? Maya and Elion is one thing, but smuggling a person who doesn't have a passport would be very questionable. Clearly, they have not thought of these things enough, Maya and Elion were so busy trying to fit in, trying to gather information that they failed to have a clear escape plan.
But weather they were ready or not, they would still do it tonight. Maya would just hope to the gods they will not be caught, because there was no middle ground on what they're about to do.
It was either freedom.
Or death.
***
The wind welcomed her with cold embrace, but she ignored it, there was not time to change and wear warmer clothes. She survived much harsher climate that this, this was nothing to her.
Maya sneaked out of her room seven minutes before midnight.
The royals were currently on their way towards their 'dinner'. Maya already calculated it to their advantage that they would be less noticeable if they move right now.
It would have been beautiful if she did not have a mission to do, but the bright moon tonight made it harder for her to sneak out.
But the bright moon was useless in a guard-less attendant's dormitory. Attendants would have thought because their freedom was respected by the royals, but Maya knew better, with the lack of manpower to guard every corner of the palace, the attendants were just not worth protecting.
Maya would have never thought he would have been thankful about the royals not caring about the lives of the attendants, but she really did. She sprinted towards Elion's room, taking her chances that there really are no guards lurking in the shadows.
'Knock.' Maya tapped once with her knuckle then paused. 'Knock.Knock.'
If Elion would not respond, she would just have to repeat their code.
Maya knocked the same way again, this time before she could finish it, a shirtless Elion answered the door.
Maya invited herself in. "Is it safe here?" she glanced at Chef Will, who was snoring soundly.
"He's asleep." Elion confirmed.
Was it Maya's imagination or Chef Will's snoring had just gotten louder? She did not mind it though, it made their voices inaudible.
"If this is about the doctor…"
Maya lifted a finger, silencing him. She fished the thorn paper from her back pocket and handed it to him. "It's red." She added as the darkness of the room made it impossible to see. "It says bring her."
Elion walked towards the bathroom, opened the lights, upon confirming what Maya said, he made sure to get rid of it and flushed it in the toilet. He closed the lights and the door and went back to Maya.
"We have to do it tonight." No, Maya corrected herself, she was not asking for permission, she was informing him that they will escape tonight. "We will go tonight with her."
The room was suddenly silent, Chef Will no longer snoring.
"Of course," he was scratching his eyebrows. "Anything you need?" there was nothing in the room that Elion could really call his own--- leaving everything was for the best.
Elion grabbed his white shirt on the nightstand and was about to bolt out the hallway when Maya stopped him. "No, you need to be in uniform."
"But," Elion countered, looking at Maya's sleeveless cotton shirt and short shorts.
"I'm afraid to wake Lisa." She glanced towards Chef Will--- who's mouth was hanged open. "I'm not as lucky as you."
"And besides,' she added. "I'm not the one who is going upstairs anyway."
***
Maya was right, it was the dead hour, midnight was always the best time to sneak out. While the royals were eating their brains out, well, other people's brains, the guards not within the vicinity of the dining room were taking a slack. There were no royals lurking around, there was no need to pretend that they actually cared. Especially these newly hired ones, the younger once who were just obviously forced to be a guard because the pay is good--- had they known the whole picture Maya knew they would not have applied for the position—any position in the palace actually.
"Meet me in the garden." Was Maya's last words to Elion before they parted ways.
There was no need for the two of them to fetch the princess, it would have been more noticeable, especially to a well- guarded area. Thank to the princess' new no curfew rule, Elion was given a leeway too, so him going to the princess' room would not be considered weird. How will Elion be able to go out of the room with the unconscious princess, that Maya was not so sure. But she's leaving that part on Elion, her job was to clear his way towards the escape route. And she's going to achieve it by scaring the bejesus out of the two guards standing facing the garden.
Yes, it sounds stupid, but thanks to Maya's wide collection of recent gossips, she knew people were talking. Allegedly some were seeing or hearing things, like a crying young girl, or a lady in white, or a glass falling on tables without anyone even touching it. Maya does not believe any of these, though many had died recently in the palace, it was not the first time a massacre had happened in here, it just so happened that the last one was widely seen and personally experience by everybody.
Maya doesn't believe in it doesn't mean that the two guards tonight doesn't either. Actually, the fact that they were assigned during the night despite being obviously new recruits means that it was part of their initiation.
Leaves rattled in the distance.
The guards with dark pimple marks on his face snapped his head towards his partner. "You heard that?" he tightened his hold into hi sphere. "It's not… It's not…"
"It's not something a sphere could cut." The other guard, who looked a year or two older, with a lopsided smile, said casually. "Probably the young spirits are playing,"
The other guard relaxed his hold on his spere to get a fistful of something from his pocket and threw it around him.
"Hey!" The other one took a pinch from his shoulder and tasted it. "You did not just throw salt." He said, bewildered. "You believe in those stuff?"
The other one shrugged. "The others did it and had a peaceful shift."
"Whatever, whatever comforts you." Guard two shrugged. "The living is scarier that the dead."
"Actually," Guard one threw up some salt onto himself. "The undead are scarier."
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